The Crux of the Matter - From the Executive Chair

The Bi-Monthly Newsletter of the Augsburg Lutheran District

Vol. 1, No. 5 (April 2002)

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Neither Pig in a Poke nor Pastor in a Sack

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from the executive chair ...

Lenae Rasmussen

"It is finished." "He has been raised from the dead." These wonderful words convey the Easter message of God’s love and mercy for us. While I hope that every issue of The Crux of the Matter is devoted to the gospel, this "Easter issue" is appropriately focused on the The Word of the Cross: God’s Answer. Indeed, through Christ’s death on the cross and resurrection, God has solved "our problem" his way. It is finished, and this is good news. We are free to love God and our neighbor without trying to earn our way up to heaven. As Dr. Schmutzler tells us, every pastor should be able to explain the meaning of Good Friday and Easter, for this is the foundation of the Christian faith and our belief in justification by faith alone.

Yet, many do not understand the Good Friday and Easter message; they preach about other things that are "more important." More than ever, we are called upon to test the spirits. The Lutheran criterion for testing and judging is whether or not law and gospel is distinguished in the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ, i.e., "because God justifies the ungodly, forgiving sinners for Christ’s sake, nothing else can be trusted for salvation. All teaching and practice are to be tested by this one criterion: whether they further the proclamation of this gospel" (Our Declaration, The Word of the Cross, §4).